The Hazel Green herald. [volume] (Hazel Green, Wolfe County, Ky.) 1885-19??, 1887-09-09
PRODUCING The eEsT.
What Would Follow n Farmers Follouss
All the Advice Given Them.

Il
A few years ago a gentleman in Wis
consin who was familiar with the dairy
business showed that the farmers in
one county lost about $500, 600 in a
single season by making inferior in
stead of very choice butter. re made
his showing by ascertaining how many
! pounds of butter they made, and COM
pairing the amount it sold for with
what would have been realized for it
had it al been sold for fifty cents per
| pound, which was received for a few
choice lots made by parties who kept
Jersey cows, had excellent facilities
| for keeping milk, were expert butter
makers, and had city customers who
were able and willing to pay fancy
| prices for very superior article. A
| somewhat similar showing was made
about the same time in relation to the
cheese made in one county in New
York. The reports of several market
towns were quoted to show that much
of the cheese made during the season
sold for seven cents per pound, while
some choice foreign cheese had been
sold for forty cents, and some fall
cream cheese, favored to sage, had
been disposed of for twenty-five cents
per pound.
Occasionally livestock journal
makes sensation showing us how
much farmers lose by keeping inferior
cattle. 1t gives the prices realized for
carload of fancy beeves, all pure
blood or high-grade animals, pastured
on blue grass and fattened on corn
meal, and compares them with the
sums received for scrubs kept on q
range, ranch, or prairie farm that
has never been improved, and which
have never had any grain to eat.
Fruit-raisers often refer TO the fact
that some baskets of peaches will
readily sell for 81, while others are
difficult to dispose of for 80 cents; that
choice spring lamb is often sold in our
large cities for so cents per pound is
certain. Extra fine chickens ready for
the broiling-iron by the 1st of July
have also been sold for IS cents per
pound. The late DIR. Hull, of Alton,
sold Washington plums in this market
for 81 per dozen. He sold some pears
and apricots at the same price. Black
Hamburg grapes have been sold at 81
pound during the same season that
C0ncords found slow sale at one
twentieth of that sum.
We are not justified, however, in
drawing the conclusion that by raising
the quality of all the articles produced
on farms such prices could be realized
for them. There are rich epicures that
will pay almost any price for vege-
tables produced far IN advance of the
season, for fruits of large size and sur
passing excellence, for meats that will
''melt in the mouth" for cream cheese
and for fresh butter made in winter
from the milk of Jersey cows. The
number of these persons, however, is
very small. If all the products of the
farm and garden were improved in
quality till they deserved to rank
among delicacies the present prices for
these articles could not be realized.
Comparatively few people can afford
to buy luxuries at the prices they now
could be obtained for less than fifty
cents per poun" w"st rnonle would he
compelled by stern necessity to find
for them. The like would
be true in relation to beef, lamb, fruit,
and vegetables of all kinds.
1t is likely that the demand for lux
uries, even at the prices now demand
ed for them, will increase as wealth
accumulates in the country. But it is
nonsense to talk about selling all the
products OF the farm and garden at the
prices few very rich men can pay
for what they use on their tables. The
quality OF them may be raised to an
IDEAL standard, but the purchasers OF
them at fancy prices will be few.
There will always be purchasers of
strawberries at fifty cents per box, but
The sales of this most delicious fruit are
never very large when the price is
much above one-tifth of that sum. The
ike is true in relation to vegetables
raised in hot-beds, grapes ripened nm.
Ter glass and spring lamb and green
peas in condition TO be cooked in the
month OF May. The great mass of hui
nanity, even in prosperous country
Ike TINS, must be content with fruit of
'nly medium quality, and which can
20 obtained at corresponding price.
I there were no scrub" cattle in the
country to furnish cheap meas, mos.
" our people would be Obliged IN, ga.